"There are alarming signs Karzai hopes to stack the
deck" for a family member or other proxy to take
over, the report states. He could also declare a state
of emergency as a means of extending his own power,
"which would accelerate state collapse and likely
precipitate a civil war."

Al-Jazeera cites a recent analysis of Gilles
Dorronsoro, Afghan expert with the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, who goes one step further by saying that
after that civil war, "a Taliban victory will
likely follow."

One thing that may prevent the Taliban reasserting its power is
that NATO special operations soldiers—the most elite
soldiers in the Afghan coalition—will
remain beyond the 2014 withdrawal to prevent militants from
gaining back territory won in the past 11 years, according to
Carmen Gentile for USA Today.

Nevertheless, a government collapse doesn't bode well for the
women of Afghanistan.
AFP reports that two prominent Afghan women activists are
calling on international policymakers to continue to help the
"very fragile" position of women in the country.

In the last ten years, Afghan women have entered leading
positions in government and non-government organizations while
girls "know the value of being educated," Hasina
Safi, director of the Afghanistan Women’s Education Center, told
AFP. "They have a vision, they are
thinking.”